Commission Six Eight
Covering today's politics and current events through the lens of history and the Bible.
Commission Six Eight
Church Under Siege
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Doors swung open mid-sermon. Voices rose, kids cried, and a sanctuary turned into a battleground over conscience, law, and power. We take you inside the St. Paul church protest—what organizers say, how the church responded, and where federal protections like the FACE Act fit when a worship service is interrupted on purpose. This isn’t just a headline; it’s a stress test of whether our public square still leaves room for faith to be faith.
We walk through the core claims: an alleged ICE tie to a pastor, calls for his resignation, and a “you could have left” defense that reframes worship as optional. Then we zoom out to the deeper fault line between individual liberty and collective pressure—how moral certainty can slip into coercion when dissenters are told their rights are no longer valid. Along the way, we talk about why churches became a target, how identity rooted in God resists state-approved morality, and what history and Scripture teach about standing firm when the crowd demands a bow.
Drawing from Daniel 3, we reflect on a posture of resolve: God is able to deliver, but even if He doesn’t, fidelity comes first. That lens reframes recent memories of COVID closures, ongoing litigation, and the temptation to trade conscience for calm. Our goal isn’t rage; it’s clarity. Protect lawful worship, reject intimidation, and cultivate courage that refuses to mirror the tactics of the mob. If the fire comes, we look for presence in the flames and keep the doors open to anyone who seeks truth.
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You are listening to Commission 68.
SPEAKER_00:It is Friday, January 23rd, the greatest country on earth. I'm your host, Randy Millette. This is Commission 68. Today we're gonna be talking about the people who infiltrated a church in Minnesota, and then we're gonna see what the Bible has to say about it. So let's go. Please remember to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. Go ahead and leave us a review, help us share the show, get the word out. And today we are going to be talking about something extremely important. And I'm going to do my best to keep my emotions in check and not get too worked up talking about this subject. But something extremely alarming happened this weekend on Sunday at a church in Minnesota, and we need to talk about it. This was a step too far. This is unprecedented. This is something that should not be allowed to ever take place in the United States. Nikiva Levy Armstrong, a twin cities civil rights attorney and ordained reverend since 2016, and Monique Cullers, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Minnesota. Armstrong and Cullers say they were co-organizers of a protest during a Sunday service at City's Church in St. Paul. They led activists with the Racial Justice Network, a group that marched into the church on Sunday and disrupted the service. They say the pastor, David Easterwood, is the acting field director for ICE in Minnesota. Easterwood did not appear to be at Sunday's service. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is investigating Sunday's protests for potential violations of the Federal Face Act, which prohibit exercising First Amendment rights in place of worship. Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced arrests for three individuals in connection with Sunday's protests. In addition to Nikita Armstrong, Chantel Allen and William Kelly were also taken into custody.
SPEAKER_01:Top story tonight, DHS Secretary Christy Gnome announcing arrests are coming any moment now related to an anti-ICE protest inside a St. Paul church on Sunday.
SPEAKER_07:This has church's lead pastor responds as well, and protest organizers double down on their reason for being there. Our So young Kim has been following this story for us all day long. And So Young, you spoke with the protest organizers today. What did they say about the federal investigation now?
SPEAKER_03:They tell us they stand by their actions. Now they're calling for the resignation of the pastor. They allege works for ICE. This was the scene inside City's church in St. Paul's Sunday when a group of demonstrators interrupted a worship gathering. Organizers say they were protesting the church's possible connection with ICE.
SPEAKER_05:It was brought to our attention that a pastor at this church was a regional field director for ICE. And because all four of us are Christian, that was quite disturbing, like to our spirit.
SPEAKER_03:The lead pastor of City's Church releasing this statement Tuesday that reads in part quote, On Sunday, January 18th, a group of agitators jarringly disrupted our worship gathering. They accosted members of our congregation, frightened children, and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat. Such conduct is shameful, unlawful, and will not be tolerated.
SPEAKER_00:Now I'm sure by now you've seen the videos or the news reports where the mob of protesters literally kicked in the doors, walked in right in the middle of service. Everyone was sitting in the pews, the pastor was on the pulpit preaching his message, and they start screaming and hollering and chanting uh justice for Renee Good. They were chanting, hands up, don't shoot. They started getting in the face of the congregants of the members of the church, right up in their face. They were intimidating them. They were hollering at him. They were saying, Why aren't you out there protesting? Why aren't you standing up against ICE? Why aren't you calling for the resignation of the pastor who allegedly is a field director for ICE in Minnesota? Now, of course, ICE will not confirm nor deny that. They're not going to participate in the doxing of their agents. We know that the ICE agents are wearing masks and trying to keep their identity hidden. But the protesters completely disrupted the service, got in the face of all the congregants, and it was a uh frightening scene to say the least. Uh, let's listen in and finish this report. The U.S.
SPEAKER_03:Department of Justice is investigating whether the protesters violated the Federal Face Act that protects religious freedom in places of worship. When asked about it, organizers dismissed the potential probe.
SPEAKER_02:Instead of these issues being addressed, what do we get from the federal government? Threats of investigating those of us who were involved in a peaceful demonstration at City's church.
SPEAKER_04:We came in in peace. And there's not a person in there was blocked from exiting. If they needed to leave, they could leave.
SPEAKER_00:This is the playbook by the left. It's the playbook of communism. It's fear, it's intimidation, and it's imposing their will on you. See, you're not allowed to have your will anymore. When the mob imposes their will, you have to forfeit yours. She says, if they wanted to leave, they could leave. What makes you think they wanted to leave? They got up that morning, got dressed, and went to church because it's that First Amendment right to do so and it's their moral and spiritual obligation to do so, and you think you can come in, disrupt the service, and they're free to leave? Because when the mob asserts its will, nothing but complete submission will be tolerated. Especially when it asserts its will under the guise of moral high ground. Cause see, they have the moral high ground in their view, therefore, your morality is no longer valid. Your will is no longer applicable. You either bend the knee to the mob or you pay the price. See, the mob believes that they're fighting injustice, therefore, their morality is higher than yours, and your first amendment right to go to church and worship freely no longer applies. You need to be out there fighting the same injustice and submit to the will of the mob or have your First Amendment rights stripped away because you're no longer worthy of their use. It's like when you go to a football game and you're sitting in the stands and you're watching the teams play on the field, and you it's third down, your team's on defense, it's a big play, and they're about to snap the ball, and everybody in the stands is yelling and everybody's screaming, and there's that one guy, three rows ahead of you, that stands up and he's not looking at the field. He turns around and he's looking at the fans and he's waving his arms and telling everyone to stand up and yell, because he decided that our actions in the stands are going to determine the outcome on the field. And if you're not yelling, you're not doing the right thing. Therefore, he's imposing his will on you. Look, I pay just as much for my ticket as that guy did. If I want to sit there and eat popcorn, if I want to sit down, if I want to cheer for the other team, I have the right to do so. But he has bought into, now granted, a much lower scale, the mob mentality where he decides we need to yell, therefore you need to stand up and yell. That's what they're doing. And that's what the left always does. They always want to impose the will of the few on the many. Pick a topic, pick an issue. The left wants to impose their will on you. The left wants to take away your rights to benefit them. If they decide they don't like guns, they don't want you to have guns. If they decide they want to break the law with impunity, they want to defund the police. If you've worked hard and accumulated wealth and they have not, they want to tax you and redistribute the wealth to them. The mentality of the left always involves taking away the rights of some individuals to benefit others. It's a zero-sum game for them. In order for them to win, you have to lose. Their only means to benefit is at your expense, and that's the will of the collective. Just like Zoran Mandami said in his inauguration speech, he called to reject individualism and embrace collectivism, which he took straight from Karl Marx, who called to reject bourgeois individualism. Because the only way to enforce collectivism is to reject individualism. It's to make the individual bend to the will of the collective. And the only way to really squash individualism is to start with the church. What is more individual than the church? What stands in the way of state-sponsored collectivism more than the church? What is more individual than a relationship with God? In order to have state-run collectivism, in order to make the individual bend to the will of the mob, you have to strip away their identity, and their identity is in Christ. So you have to strip away their spirituality. You cannot impose state-sponsored morality on the church because their morality comes from the Almighty. That's why the Soviet Union was atheist. Because they realized very early on they would never be able to have complete control if the church was allowed to continue because the church would not be controlled by man. Christians are controlled by God. Do you really think that this mob invading this church service was about the pastor being the field director of ICE? They may think so, but it wasn't. It has a much deeper root, it has a much deeper spiritual meaning. The one thing that will always stand in the way of the forfeiture of your individual rights to the will of the mob is the Church of the Living God. And for the first time in a long time, the church has the backing of the federal government. And that's why I can't agree with Christians who dismiss Donald Trump or can't support Donald Trump because he doesn't live up to their standard of morality. Look, he doesn't live up to my standard of morality either. But he's the one standing in the way of the mob, replacing your morality with theirs. Look, I've never been a true proponent of no enemies to the right. I believe that all politicians should be held accountable for everything that they do publicly in office. Everything that they vote on and every which way that they vote, they should be held accountable when it comes to the ballot box. However, the stakes have never been higher. We have the midterms coming up, and if we lose Republican majority in Congress, we're in for two years of impeachment attempts. We're in for two years of blocking anything that the Republicans try to do. They're going to try to bring back the genital mutilation of children. They're going to try to bring back the abortion laws, and they are going to come after the church like they've never done before. Mark my words, COVID was a test, and the church failed. Now I believe that this Sunday and what's happening right now in Minnesota should be warning shots across the bow to all the churches in America. This should be a wake-up call for the Church of the Living God. In the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, we saw the beginning of a nationwide revival, and I'm not willing to give back the ground that we've taken. I'm not willing to go back to wearing masks or not being allowed to have church or giving up my guns or having my children told that they were born the wrong gender. I'm not willing to go back to having unborn babies all across America being offered up to Moleq. This is greater than us. This is greater than our generation, and this is a line that the church cannot allow to be crossed. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER_08:You are listening to Commission 68.
SPEAKER_00:Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden image and demanded that when the music played, that everyone under his rule bow down and worship the image. Now the purpose of this was to impose complete submission. See, the Babylonians had the Israelites in captivity, but that didn't mean that the Israelites were worshiping Babylonian gods. So Nebuchadnezzar decided that he was going to force the Israelites into submission, because bowing down and worshiping the golden image meant rejecting God. So once the image was in place, they would play music, and anyone who did not bow down and worship the image would be thrown into a fiery furnace. So now every single Israelite was faced with this decision. Would they spare their life and worship the golden image and maybe even not mean it? You know? They could tell themselves, let me bow down and I'll just pretend to worship, but I don't want to get thrown in a fiery furnace. Or would they stay true to their belief and stay true to their God and reject a mandate that forced compromise? Now a lot of us read this story and put ourselves in their shoes and think, of course I wouldn't bow down. I wouldn't compromise my beliefs just because somebody told me to. But these people were literally faced with death. The option was either bow down and worship the golden image or die. Let me pose the question this way. What would you do if the government told you you couldn't attend church because it was a deadly pandemic? What if the government told you that your right to gather and hear the preaching of the word and worship corporately was not as important as keeping everyone safe from a virus? I'm not talking about being put to death. They're not gonna come throw you in a fiery furnace. They just told you to stay home. Your right to go to church is not worth risking public safety. Your right to go to church is not worth risking the benefit of the collective. There were churches that didn't close during COVID. There were churches that didn't shut their doors one Sunday. There were some that closed the first two weeks or the first month and then decided to open back up without government permission. There are churches, there are pastors literally today who are still facing litigation over staying open during COVID. But more churches than not by an overwhelming majority failed this test. More churches than not bent to the will of the government and closed in the interest of public safety. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said? Those who forfeit essential liberties for safety and security deserve neither safety nor security. Now, if you've paid attention to these protests and these riots, remember what happened during the George Floyd riots and the BLM riots. They start somewhere and then they spread like wildfire. I predict that this coming Sunday there are going to be more protests and more churches across the country in different cities. That's what I think is going to happen. I pray that I'm wrong. Believe me, and I am praying that I'm wrong. But I believe that the attack on the church has just begun. So now we are faced with the same question as the Israelites were faced with in Daniel chapter 3. When the music plays, when the will of the mob is imposed on you, what are you going to do? What is the church going to do? Now we know in the Bible that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't bow. The music played and they stood standing. They were standing amongst a nation of Israelites, bowing to a graven image, and they stood defiant. And what happened? They were brought before King Nebuchadnezzar, who told them, If you don't bow, when the music plays, you will be thrown into the fiery furnace. And what did they say? In verse 16, it says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and if he will, deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods, or worship the golden image that you have set up. And herein lies our challenge. We know that our God is able to deliver us, but even if he doesn't, King, we're not going to bow. Even if he doesn't, we're not going to worship the graven image. Even if he doesn't, we're not going to forsake the name of the living God. We know he is able to deliver us because he is greater, he is bigger, he is stronger. But even if he does not, we are not going to compromise our belief and our faith in God for you, for the government, for the mob, or for anyone. Now we know from the story that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace. The fire was turned up seven times hotter, and they were thrown into the fire. And when Nebuchadnezzar looked in to see what happened, he threw three men in, but they were four standing there because Jesus was in the fire with them. But this is what I want you to take away from this story. God didn't save them from the fiery furnace. They still had to be thrown into the fire. It wasn't until they were in the fire that Jesus showed up. It wasn't until they were past the point of no return that Jesus showed up. And when they came out of the fire, they didn't even smell like smoke. But their victory didn't happen when they weren't burned up in the fire. Their victory happened when they refused to kneel. So what are we going to do, church? What are you going to do? Are we going to let the mob tell us that we're not allowed to assemble? Are we going to let people come into our church and tell us that we should be doing something else? Are we going to let someone else assert what they think is a higher morality? Or are you going to say, I know my God is able to deliver me, but even if he doesn't, I won't compromise my beliefs. If you're listening to this right now, I'm not telling you that God's going to prevent you from going through the fire. I'm telling you that once you're in the fire, that's when he shows up. This is our path to victory, America. This is our path back to God. This is our path to revival. And again, I thank you guys for listening to me today, and I pray blessings, blessings over you and your family. I pray God blesses you coming in and he blesses you going out. I pray peace, power, and prosperity. And remember that you. You live in the greatest country on earth, and it's up to you to keep it.
SPEAKER_08:This has been Commission Six Eight.